A Man Struck By Lightning 7 Times

They say that lightning never strikes at the same place twice; well there are extremely rare exceptions, such as the case of Roy Sullivan. He didn’t get struck by lightningtwice, but 7 times!

Roy Sullivan was an average countryside boy who grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains with ten other siblings and his parents. He never finished school, but joined the Civilian Conservation Corps and worked as a park ranger from 1936 onwards, until his retirement. He got struck by lightning 7 times over the course of 35 years from 1942-1977.

Photo via. All That Is Interesting

Strike 1

The first lightning strike happened in 1942 during a thunderstorm when he was overlooking the park where he worked at in the fire tower. Lightning struck the tower multiple times until it caught fire.

Sullivan tried to escape but he was struck just a few feet away from the tower. He got some injuries that weren’t that serious but left him in a state of shock. He considers this incident as the worst of the seven.

Photo via. Mother Nature Network

Strike 2

Everything was fine for 27 years until July 1969 when he was on duty. This time he was driving on the road and a lightning struck him through his truck’s open window. His hair caught fire and he fainted. He was fortunate enough that his truck didn’t cause a serious accident.

He nearly died as his truck stopped right at the edge of a cliff.

Strike 3

The next year he was just casually standing in his own garden when a lightning struck him. This time it didn’t strike him directly but it hit a power transformer first and then caught on to him.

Maybe lighting just really likes this guy or something. He got some burns on his left shoulder from this incident.

Strikes 4 and 5

These two strikes caught him on duty in 1972 and 1973. He was at the ranger station when a lightning struck him and set his hair on fire again. He had to use damp towels on his hair to put out the fire.

The fifth incident was when he was out in the open trying to outrun a storm cloud. At this point, he had an idea that lightning might strike so he ran as fast as he could until it finally struck him. This incident confirmed his belief that he attracted lightning towards him somehow and started becoming scared of thunderstorms.

Strikes 6 and 7

Photo via. 435 Magazine

In June 1976, he was struck by lightning once again when he was trying to outrun a storm cloud. This led him to injure his ankle after he fell. The last lightning strike occurred the following year in June again. This time he was fishing in a pond. His hair caught fire again and his chest got some burns as well.

He was either the luckiest man to have survived 7 lightning strikes or the unluckiest one to have stormy clouds always following him!